Bitcoin is up more than 100% in 2019

Bitcoin is up more than 100% in 2019 — why is no one Googling it?

As bitcoin storms through $8,000, booking fresh cycle highs by the day, many analysts think it’s safe to assume that the leading digital currency is truly back after a calamitous 2018.

However, there’s one bitcoin measure that’s sitting out the rebound, at least for now.

According to data from Google GOOGL, -1.03% “bitcoin” as a current popular search term greatly trails its search popularity in late 2017 when the digital currency was worth nearly $20,000. For the period May 5-11, the search term on Google scored a 9 on the popularity scale of 0 to 100. That compares to a 100 recorded over Dec. 17-23, 2017.

But does that mean people are disinterested?

“For the most part, bitcoin is a household name now, people don’t need to search it to know what it is or how to invest in it. Much like Apple AAPL, +1.58% , everyone knows bitcoin by now,” said Jeff Dorman, chief investment officer at Arca, a crypto-based asset management firm.

Google search results for bitcoin. The numbers represent search interest relative to the highest point on the chart for the given region and time. A value of 100 is peak popularity. A value of 50 means that the term is half as popular. A score of 0 means there was not enough data for this term.

Another hypothesis for the lack of bitcoin search interest: institutional investors don’t need to search the word.

“The recent bout of strength is not retail driven,” said Dorman. “There’s some big family offices, direct buying in the OTC [over-the-counter] markets and the hedge-fund space. They are certainly not Googling bitcoin.”

Further evidence of the institutional-based rally came on Monday when Grayscale Investments, the world’s largest digital currency asset manager, said it raised $42.7 million in the first quarter of 2019, a 42% increase quarter-over-quarter, with 73% of the money raised coming via institutional investors.

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An award-winning political journalist formerly with Nigerian Tribune Newspaper with almost two decades reporting news across the globe. I expose and report on government censorship and focus on freedom of speech as a vehicle to be truly free from the oppression of government dictatorship.